Possibility: Sinking
by Mystic83
Summary: PLEASE READ MY AUTHOR'S NOTE... What if the Blackbird refused to fly? What if it became clear that Starbuck had made the wrong choice when stepping forward to pilot the new ship? KaraLee


**This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the first half of the second season (I'll be posting in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!

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There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilities are endless.

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Author's note: I do not claim to be an expert on physics or flying in any way. I respectfully ask my audience to understand that when reading this fic. I have received criticism for the lack of believability in this fic, and I understand where it's coming from. However,I've thought it over, and I'm not sure I could fix the problem with this story without losing the intended meaning.. So, since I can't edit it, I hope it doesn't distract too much.

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Kara Thrace was decidedly pissed off, and for once, it was at herself and no one else. It had begun with Lee ticking her off in the firing range a few days before. That was the sole reason she volunteered to fly this fraking thing. She wanted to point out the complete lack of balls that Lee had. She never really thought that this would end with her hurtling to her death.

"Can you even hurtle to your death in outer space?" she muttered before shaking her head. "The gods aren't going to answer that one, Thrace. Okay, time to get this baby under control."

"What the frak are you doing, Starbuck?"

"I am not doing _anything_, Apollo," she hissed into her comms.

"You're losing altitude."

"Like I don't know that!" The ship rocked to one sign, and Kara could swear that her left engine just gave out. That was impossible, though. She was pretty sure the right one had given out a few minutes before, and there was no way she could still be flying if both engines were out. "Oh frak."

"This isn't funny," Lee hissed.

Kara turned to see him angling his Viper at the same sharp degree as the Blackbird. "I don't have engines, Lee," she choked out, desperately trying to keep some semblance of control up.

Lee froze. Like all of Kara's stunts, this had been funny in the usual way that made him so fraking worried. Good thing he had learned how to handle that little personality quirk years before. Frak, he was actually kind of proud that Kara could get under his skin so well. It reminded him there were still parts of him that were alive.

In all those times she had infuriated him beyond belief, she had never once slipped into the level of familiarity they both knew was between them. She never called him Lee while in the cockpit.

"You're really in trouble, aren't you?" he choked out.

"Finally, you're listening to me! Of course I'm in fraking trouble. This damn hunk of junk is falling through space, and I have no way to get it to stop," she screamed.

"Settle down, Starbuck… Kara," he corrected. There wasn't time to keep up appropriate appearances. She was on the edge of being frantic. "You're not falling that fast. We have time to figure out how to get your sorry ass out of this one."

"Thanks, Lee. Glad you have confidence in me!"

Lee ignored her. The anger was only a defense mechanism. Plus, it would be a lie if he said he wouldn't be acting the same way if he was in her position. "All right. Your engines are out. Is there a way you can jump start her?"

"I don't know. I didn't build this fraking thing," she yelled.

Lee drew his Viper in line next to the Blackbird. He had been hoping that instinct would just kick in for Kara and he wouldn't have to do this, but things never happened easily for him. He shouldn't be doing this on the open comm channel, but sometimes you had to roll a hard six for the important stuff. "Kara, look at me." He waited until she turned her head to meet his through the cockpit glass. "I need you to check that panic at the door. Even though I'd never admit it to your face, you're good at what you do. I need to see that pilot who relies on instinct and inexplicable luck to beat the odds."

Kara held his eyes, and Lee could see the exact moment that determination set in. "People are depending on me."

"That's my girl," Lee mouthed silently to her. He cleared his throat and diverted his attention to the situation around them. "Galactica, Apollo. I'm tracking Starbuck's downward motion. We have a small space of opening. I'm going to see if maybe, together, the two of us can get her bird to fly straight. Any suggestions would be welcome, though."

"Apollo, Galactica Actual. How bad is it?"

Kara rolled her eyes. These Adama men had a protection complex when it came to her. Most time it was endearing. Right now it was fraking annoying. "I'm still patched in," she injected. "My engines appear to have sputtered out, sir. I might be able to cold start them, but that would involve waiting for them to cool. I don't know if we have that much time."

"Is cold starting your only option?"

"Right now, sir, yes, it is. There's no way I can gain any altitude in this atmosphere. It's straight dead air pushing down on the ship. Frak!" There was a loud reverb in her ear, and Kara instinctively punched the communications panel. "Sorry about that, sir. I know Dee did the best she could with this comm, but I don't think it's wired properly." Kara waited for a response. "Sir? Commander Adama? Galactica, Starbuck, please respond. Can anyone hear me?"

Kara looked over and was relieved to see Lee's Viper still running parallel to her own ship. He gave her a look of concern, and she tapped on her helmet. Lee's eyes narrowed before he held up a hand to tell her to hang on. After a moment, Kara heard a gentle buzzing in her ear followed by a small pop.

"Kara, can you hear me?"

"Lee?" She didn't even realize she was afraid until her voice began to tremble. "I can't do this."

"Yes, you can, Kara."

"I can feel it speeding up."

"Calm down, Kara." Lee hoped repeating her name would keep her focused. If she started to drift off into the maybes and the what could bes, it would be hard to pull her back to reality. "Dee diverted your comm system to a direct connection with mine. I'm the only one that can hear you right now. I want you to try to start the engines. See if giving it a little thrust won't get them back in order."

He heard her take a deep breath before reaching down to do as he asked. There was a small sputter, and Lee swore he saw the right engine flare. He could still hear Galactica's CIC chattering in his ears and tried not to let himself be distracted.

"It's not going to hold," she growled just as there was a small explosion over her right wing.

At that moment, Lee wanted to kill himself for letting Kara get within ten feet of the Blackbird. Stealth ship or not, it was a piece of crap that had no chance of flying. Why had it seemed like a good idea to put the best pilot the Fleet had into its cockpit?

Kara's words cut through his anger. "Oh gods."

Lee watched her gaze shift from him down to the control panel in front of her. "What's wrong, Kara?"

"This isn't going to work, Lee. You need to get back to Galactica before something stupid happens and I take you with me."

Lee watched her desperately pound something in front of her. He couldn't make out what it was. "Kara?" She didn't stop. If anything, she started pounding harder. "Kara, would you look at me? Starbuck? Lieutenant Thrace, give me your eyes!"

His formalness seemed to snap her out of it. She glared at him. "That's what I like to see," he said with a small smile. "Now tell me why you're freaking out."

"That bang you heard was the support in my right wing giving way. It knocked out my steering, but let's look on the bright side. I think the wing's still attached."

"I've seen you land a bird that's hurt a lot worse than that. Besides, I can help guide you in." The thought suddenly occurred to Lee how odd this all must sound to the CIC. Dee had patched him straight into the Blackbird, but she didn't want to waste any power by keeping it linked to the CIC. Everyone could hear Lee's side of the conversation, but they were blind to what Kara was saying. Lee knew that he probably had an obligation to tell them what was happening. There just wasn't enough time.

"How the hell am I supposed to pull my ship close enough to do that?" Kara hissed, pulling him back to the situation at hand.

"We'll find a way," Lee assured her.

He could hear her pause before shaking her head. She looked down at the panel before sighing. "My control panel keeps blinking in and out. I think I'm about to lose the little maneuverability I have. There's something seriously wrong because I'm falling a hell of a lot faster than before if you haven't noticed."

Lee wanted to tell her that he had noticed but figured it wasn't the type of thing you commented on. "Come on, Kara. Any self-respecting pilot could work with those minor issues," he joked, hoping the light tone might distract her. She always loved to yell at him when he behaved inappropriately for the situation.

"That's not all that's wrong." Her voice cracked. Kara hoped he didn't notice.

"What is it?"

"Your voice had been breaking up for the past minute or so."

"No problem. I'll just have to get the signal boosted."

"That's not going to work, Lee. Anyway you need that power to get yourself back to Galactica."

"Kara…"

"Don't start with me. The signal will fade out. You'll divert more power, and it'll fade again. You'll keep pumping more and more power into it. It won't help. It's always going to fade. Everything is going to fade away."

Lee watched as she stared out vacantly out her cockpit. It was a classic sign of space dementia. Most rookies got it their first time in the air. The black expanses of space could be very inviting to a first-time flyer. Kara was beyond that point, though. There was something else. "Kara?" he asked again.

"I'm just going to keep falling, Lee. Space has no end. I'm going to keep falling and falling, and I don't want you here to see it." She turned to look at him through the thin plate of glass. "Gods, I want you here, but you can't stay. You have to let me go."

"Kara, I am not leaving you."

"You're just going to fade away. You can't stop that."

"I _will not_ fade away from you." He watched in terror as the cockpit light flickered before coming back half-power.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you, Lee. You were right. I never should have volunteered. The idea that we could build a ship from scratch is stupid. We're not engineers."

"I'm not completely clueless, Kara. I know this wasn't about building a damn ship. It was about hope."

Her lips spread into an uneasy smile. "I always knew you weren't as dense as you wanted me to believe."

Lee's eyes went wide as the Blackbird went into a free-fall. He pulled his Viper down, and together the two ships plummeted for a good minute before Kara got herself back in control. "I don't think I have much time here." Lee could hear the conviction in her voice as determination took hold again. "I'm not going to lie to you. I'm scared to death of being alone right now."

"I'm not leaving you," Lee insisted.

"I won't ask you to stay."

"You don't have to."

"I can't do that to you, Lee. This isn't going to messy or particularly exciting, but it's going to be ugly. What's about to happen is the type of thing that will haunt a person for the rest of his life. I know a thing or two about being haunted by mistakes of the past. You mean too much for me to let that happen to you." The light in her helmet sputtered for a moment and then went dark.

"Kara!" Lee screamed into his comm. He knew she was still by his side. The ship wasn't plummeting. "Come on, Thrace! I know you can still hear me." He waited for an answer. "I'm not leaving you, Kara. You would never leave me."

Lee could hear the comm crackling. That told him he was right. She was still there. She just wasn't answering him. He cut off his connection to the CIC. They did not need to hear what was going to come next. "Kara Thrace, you listen to me. I did not step into my Viper this morning to sit by and let you die. I know you must think it was a horrible coincidence that I had to be the one beside you while this happened. Well, like always, you don't know what the frak you're talking about. Did you think I was randomly assigned to escort you on this mission?"

He waited for her response. When it didn't come, he decided he obviously hadn't goaded her enough. "I'll have you know I actually had an off-shift for the first time in two weeks this morning. Then you got it in your crazy head that only the legendary Starbuck could properly pilot the new stealth ship. Just like that, my free time was out the window. How the frak was I supposed to let you do this alone?"

Lee saw a small flash of movement in the black sky before he heard her small voice. "You volunteered?"

"Of course I did, Kara. If something went wrong, I was the only one who could bring you back."

"I don't want to die, Lee."

"I know."

The air feel silent as the crackling of the comm link cut off. Kara had been right. He was just going to fade away until she was gone.

Lee knew he had one shot at this. He had to come up with a plan fast. For a second, he thought about calling CIC, but he had no clue what to say. He needed out of the box thinking, and Galactica didn't have it. If he wasn't so concerned, his predicament would actually make him want to laugh. In order to save Kara, he needed Kara. She would come up with some way to save herself.

It hit him like a lightning bolt. Kara had already told him exactly what he had to do.

He had said it himself seconds earlier. She would never leave him. He had been dead in the air at Ragnor Anchorage. He had begged her to leave him beyond. She had just given him that infuriating grin.

The air was still silent, but Lee could feel her out there. Kara wanted him to leave her behind? Well, she was just going to have to get over being disappointed.

Lee hoped to the gods that her trajectory hadn't changed.

Closing his eyes, he did an end-on-end flip and thrust his ship into the clear night.

Kara could feel herself waking up and was surprised to realize her head was not throbbing. The gods must have been looking down on her. They took her straight to their side instead of leaving her to the flames of Hades. The gods must be blind.

Her eyes slowly slid open and the brightness made her flinch. She wondered if she would get to see her father and Zak again. It had been so long.

Kara fought to push back the nagging voice in the back of her head. She didn't care if that sense of something missing would always be with her. She didn't care that the gods saw it fit that she couldn't have both the Adama brothers in her life at the same time. She didn't care that she felt like her life was half finished. This was supposed to be the relief she deserved. She shouldn't have regrets.

The haze finally cleared, and she realized there was someone standing over her. He was smiling, and that, like always, made her glare. "I fraking hate you."

"Payback's a bitch, Kara," Lee said, resting his hand on top of hers.

She gave him a small smile before letting herself sink back into the fog. It was okay. She knew he'd be there to pull her back.


End file.
